Not advertising on Amazon? You’re probably missing out

Amazon Prime has pretty much become America’s favorite department store. Where else can you get cleaning supplies, cosmetics, even high-end clothing, all in the same place and delivered right to your door? That’s probably why Amazon now boasts more than 80 million American Prime subscribers, not to mention 300 million American users.

However, with so many customers, it stands to reason that Amazon is also packed with vendors, meaning users are often overwhelmed by choice. Taking advantage of Amazon’s ad options is your best bet for standing out among competitors and getting your product to the top of Amazon searches. Here’s a quick guide to some of the most popular Amazon ad options.

A+ content

By now, most of us understand the the importance of ranking at the top of Google searches, and it’s no different with Amazon. As Amazon’s A9 algorithm gets more complex, optimizing your content for search is more important than ever before. Luckily, Amazon’s A+ content is free for vendors and includes more detailed product descriptions, rich images, charts, and narrative copy, which not only helps customers make informed buying decisions but also drives more conversions on your detail page. According to Amazon, A+ Content can increase sales on average 3 to 10% by educating the consumer about your product and brand.

Sponsored Brands

Sponsored Brands are keyword-driven and appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). So, if you’re searching for “winter skin moisturizer,” you might see three suggestions at the top of the page above the other results. Sponsored Brands are marked “sponsored” and are generally considered top-of-the-funnel, since they are similar to banner ads. Customers who click are most likely in the research stage of the buyer journey and more open to browsing.

Sponsored Product Ads

There are two types of Sponsored Product Ads: automatic, which are content-driven, and manual, which are keyword-driven. These ads appear on the top and bottom of the SERP and are also marked “sponsored.” Aside from being labeled sponsored, they look just like other search results, displaying the product, a brief description, Prime eligibility, and user ratings.

Since Sponsored Product Ads are available to both vendors and third-party sellers, competition for them is fierce. However, they’re easy to create and usually approved within the hour. Sponsored Product Ads are considered mid-to-bottom of funnel ads because they appear when customers are generally comparing their options for purchase.

Product Display Ads

(Note here that the Product Display Ads (PDAs) functionality is being deprecated and rolled into Sponsored Products in the coming months.) Amazon’s Product Display Ads are product-targeted and either category-based or shopper-interest-based. They can live on your product detail page, but they can also live on the product detail pages of your competitor, which gives you a big leg up if you’re offering a promotion and your competitor isn’t. And since the majority of Product Display Ad impressions, clicks, and sales come from their advantageous placement on a product page, you can use them offensively to get into your competitor’s listing, or defensively on your own product page to ensure your competitors don’t do the same to you.

The best things to advertise in Product Display Ads are special offers, like coupons, lightning deals, deals of the day, and best deals. These ads give your customers a reason to stop searching and buy (or to move their search from your competitor’s page to yours).

Why Amazon Advertising?

If you’re in the ecommerce industry, chances are, you’ve got ads on Google Shopping, Facebook, and Instagram. Advertising on Amazon is no less important than other channels. Amazon has unique insights into not only what customers are searching for, but also what they’re buying. This differentiation is quickly making them a major competitor to more established ad offerings, according to Gary Burtka at Search Engine Watch.

“The accelerating growth of Amazon’s ad business poses a threat to established digital advertising platforms including Google and Facebook,” Burtka writes. Though Amazon ads are younger than Google and Facebook ads, they’re quickly moving up the ranks of top-earning ad businesses, recently earning the number three position right behind the other two. So chances are, even if you’re not advertising with Amazon yet, your competitor might be.

And most reports indicate that the power of Amazon ads is only going to get stronger. Acting now could earn those coveted top search spots sooner rather than later.

For more information on how to best use Amazon’s ads and services, download CPC Strategy’s latest white paper.

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